April 23, 2011
Better mileage on full tank or not?
Commercial planes now fly with just enough fuel to get to the destination. This saves fuel due to lower overall weight to transport. Taking extra stuff out of your car lowers weight and improves mileage. So… fill up only when tank is near empty or keep tank closer to full?
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Filed under Gas Conservation FAQ by on Apr 23rd, 2011. Comment. 
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Comments on Better mileage on full tank or not?
Less fuel will increase your mileage BUT the difference will be too small to notice.
Commercial airlines have ALWAYS done this, the only difference is the public didn’t know it in the past.
In automotive applications it doesn’t matter. If you weighed say 300lbs, it’d be as if you were 250lbs. In small cars with 10-11gallon tanks, 15-20lbs in fuel is nothing in terms of gain in mileage. It’ll burn more gas in stopping more than necessary to fill up than any savings you might get on the road by running a tank at half.
Airliners use hundreds of gallons to take off. They can also hold 10,000 gallons per wing, which is a lot of fuel. If you only need 2000 gallons to take off and get to your destination with 400gallons in reserve then why take off with an extra 15 tons of fuel when it’s not necessary…
um ok i can see you have lost the purpose COMPLETELY. planes do it now so that if they get hijacked (again) they wont be able to fly far.it really has nothing to do with weight. now in your car.its really doesnt matter how much fuel you have. just dont run it lower than 1/4 or else you will burn your fuel pump up
The difference in a car with a full tank and empty tank is not nearly as much as with a large plane. I do agree that taking extra stuff out of a car but even then the savings are minimal at best. The way you drive will have a greater impact than weight alone.